9 January 2013

My journal for OEDIPUS THE KING

Sophocles’ Oedipus the King starts with plague. It is a
sickness and if this pollution hadn’t happened, Oedipus wouldn’t have wanted to
find out who is the murderer of Laius. Also the play is arranged around cause and effect so that
each event cannot be separated from each other. For example, because of plague,
Oedipus sent Creon to Apollo to ask solution. In line 107, we can see the
solution which is to find the murderer of Laius. Oedipus goes to Teiresias and
it goes on like that. Moreover I like word changing in the play. To illustrate,
Teiresias is the blind man but he is the one who sees the truth. In contrast,
Oedipus is the healthy man and he has bright eyes but he is the one who cannot
see the truth that he is the murderer of his real father. It is clear irony in
line 457.

Who is the guiltiest in the play? This was asked by Mr. Boyd in the lesson. I answered it quickly as “Oedipus”. However,
when I think the whole play deeply, the
misdeed starts at the beginning times which are before Oedipus was born. In line
777, Jocasta says she let her husband
whatever do with the son. She didn’t prevent the King about killing her son.
Therefore, she is the murderer, too. She decided
that intentionally. However, Oedipus didn’t know the man he killed is his
father. If he had known, he wouldn’t have done such a cruel thing.

I started to wonder about Jocasta’s
character. She was a loyal wife and she applied whatever Laius said. On the
contrary, she always comes out against Oedipus while he is trying to reveal the murderer. As she refuses the prophecies and she
tells don’t pay attention those sayings like in line 1040. Moreover, she is
such a woman that when Oedipus blamed Creon as murderer, she begs Oedipus to
save Creon’s life. She didn’t do the same thing for her child and she sent her
son to death in cold blood.